Aurora Theater Shooting: Family Saved by a Black Youth

19-year-old Jarell Brooks was released from the hospital today after being treated for the gunshot wound he received while attending The Dark Knight Rises screening last week.

Brooks was one of the more than 50 people wounded by James Holmes during the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater during the midnight screening of the summer blockbuster.

Thanks to Brooks’ heroism, a mother and her two children were not one of Holmes’ victims:

Brooks said that when Holmes started shooting everyone scrambled for the exits. While trying to get out of the theater, he saw a woman, later identified as Patricia Legarreta, struggling to get herself and her two children out. He said he crawled on top of Legarreta in an attempt to push her and the kids out the door but then couldn’t get out himself.

Brooks told ABC News that even though he’s recovering at home, he is still shaken by the attack.

“At the end of the aisle, I ran into a woman. She yelled, ‘My kids!’ and I saw she had two young kids with her,” he told ABC News. “I made sure they got in the aisle and pushed behind her to make sure she got out of there.”

That’s when Brooks said he felt a shot to his leg. Brooks said he was shot in the thigh, and fell to the ground.

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The Black Youth Project is a platform that highlights the voices and ideas of Black millennials. Through knowledge, voice, and action, we work to empower and uplift the lived experiences of young Black Americans today.